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Benjamin Franklin. 



MAY lB1R9fi 



^bc If broo febcct^ 

A Monthly Magazine for Proofreaders, Printers 
and all Literary Workers. 



The only periodical of its kind in tlie world. Its contents 
are of value not only to Proofreaders and Printers, but to every' 
one having to do with the making and marketing of literary 
wares. It is aggressive and progressive, bound by no cast-iron 
rules, but seeking for the best of everything in its line. 

AS A REFERENCE-BOOK. 

Each issue of THE PROOFSHEET contains more or less 
matter of use for reference; and as each volume is carefully in^ 
dcxed this will make it invaluable as a reference -book. 

PROOFREADERS* SOCIETIES. 

As far as possible, THE PROOFSHEET publishes notes of 
the proceedings of the various Proofreaders' organizations, with 
the papers read before them, and strongly urges the formation of 
similar societies in every part of the country. It endeavors to 
cultivate an esprit du corps among Proofreaders and to elevate 
Proofreading to its proper position, as a profession. 

AS A HELPER 

In the proofroom and the editorial room, as well as the author's 
study, it is invaluable. 

IN SHAPE FOR BINDING. 

THE PROOFSHEET is handsomely printed, in convenient 
shape for binding. It is mailed in envelops, flat, so that at the 
end of the year the subscriber has a handy volume for binding 
and preservation. 

Terms, $1 per annum; Single Copies, 10 Cents. 

Copies may be obtained through the news companies, or by 
addressing the publisher, 

THE BEN FRANKLIN CO., 
232 Irving Avenue, Chicago, 111. 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
Peiiit d'apres Nature pour la Famille. 

Expose au Salon de 177i). 



[Reijroduction from an engraving after Dui)lessis* jiaiating.J 



A TYPICAL AMERICAN. 



BENJAim FRANKLIN. 



An Address delivered before the Old-Time Printers' Association 
of Chicago, January 17, A. D. 18i)(;, 

By JOSEPH MEDILL, 

Editor of the Chicago TribuHe. 





CHICAGO: 
THE BEN FRANKLIN COMPANY. 

1896. 






Coi)yright. 1896. by 
'11 K I'.KN FRANKLIN C«iMl'AN'V. 



PUBLISHER'S rREFACE. 



The following address was delivered on a fitting 
occasion and before an appropriate audience — at the 
celebration of the one hundred and ninetieth anniver- 
sary of the birth of Franklin, by the Old- Time Print- 
ers' Association of Chicago, a body of veterans at the 
case and the press. The address has but one fault : 
it is too brief to do full justice to a life so useful and 
noble as Franklin's. But Mr. Medill himself says of 
it, in a note to the publisher: "I have tried to crowd 
into a small space enough to show what a wonderful 
man Franklin was ; how many-sided or multifold his 
mind was ; how nearly an universal genius he was ; 
to show that his was a great mind in many directions. 
I wish to have the pamflet tell enough about him to 
arouse a curiosity on the part of young men which 



IV PREFACE. 

will eaiise them to read more about this remarkable 
man." 

Heartily sympathizing with Mr. Medill's view of 
Franklin's life and character, — which he is commem- 
orating in enduring bronze, — the publisher has put 
the address in permanent and attractive form, hoping 
by its circulation to stimulate young men to a more 
thorough study of the life and teachings of the great 
printer, diplomat, lilosofer and patriot, and thereby 
aid in perpetuating his influence for good. 

May, 1896. 



Cr^^/3> 





FRANKLIN AT TWENTY. 
[From Parton's Life of Franklin.] 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 



My Old-Time Printer Friends : 

We are assembled here this evening to celebrate 
the birthday of the printer's patron saint, the immor- 
tal Benjamin Franklin, who first saw the light of day 
in Boston January 17, 1706, being one hundred and 
ninety years ago. Queen Anne then reigned over the 
British empire, and her great general, Marlborough, 
was leading her soldiers to a series of victories over 
the armies of France. 

It is impossible for me to make an address de- 
scribing Franklin's life and career within the limits of 
the brief time that I can claim from your patience. He 
performed too many beneficial, worthy and remark- 
able actions, and gave the Avorld too many useful, 
noble and wise thoughts to even catalog them in the 
time at my disposal. Since history has recorded 
human actions and ideas who has performed more 
beneficial work for mankind? Who has added more 
to the stock of human knowledge than Franklin? 
Wlio has done more for human liberty or for the sons 
of toil, in rendering the lives of the common people 
happier or their lot more endurable, than Benjamin 



10 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin? He was born into the ranks of the hard- 
working masses, and he sympathized deeply with the 
lives of toil and deprivation which they must lead and 
endure. He devoted his own life to the amelioration 
and improvement of theirs. He was the great and 
beneficent schoolmaster of the poor and lowly, and 
never ceased to sympatliize with them and to espouse 
their cause till death closed his wonderful career. 

Benjamin Franklin was the tenth and youngest 
son of Josiali Franklin, who gave to him the name of 
the Jewish patriarch's youngest son, Benjamin. Dr. 
Franklin was able to trace his family in England back 
through a line of farmers and mechanics to the time 
of King Henry the' Eighth, and beyond that period 
into France, where it was lost in the hoary depths of 
time. 

Franklin discovered, while in England, that ten 
generations of his ancestors in the direct line were 
freeholders ; that for three hundred years the Frank- 
lin family owned a farm of forty acres at Ecton ; that 
the oldest son was heir and learned the blacksmith 
trade and usually took the youngest son as an appren- 
tice. The other sons were taught to be carpenters, 
masons, shoemakers, tallow-chandlers, or to learn 
other village trades ; but the blacksmiths led and 
controlled all the rest of the Franklins, probably be- 
cause they could strike the hardest knockdown blows. 

A remarkable coincidence may be stated in this 
connection on the authority of one of Franklin's biog- 
rafers, viz., that the family from which George Wash- 
ington descended and Franklin's family were for many 



HIS ANCESTRY. 11 

generations near neighbors in England. The Wash- 
ington family was of the knights and nobility. A 
Franklin blacksmith may have often tightened a rivet 
in the armor or placed a shoe npon the horse of a 
Washington, or dotfed his cap to a Washington riding 
past his ancestral forge. Bnt, nntil Postmaster Ben 
Franklin of Pennsylvania met Col. George Washing- 
ton of Virginia in the camp of Gen. Braddock in 1755, 
the two families had run their several ways without 
association. 

But they became Avell acquainted in subse([uent 
years. They served together in the first convention 
of the colonies, assembled in Philadelphia to consult 
on measures for mutual defense against British tyr- 
anny. Franklin remained with that body to help 
frame the Declaration of Independence, and Wash- 
ington withdrew from it to take command in chief of 
the revolutionary forces. They met again twelve years 
later in the convention of 1787, held in the same city, 
to frame a national constitution, over which Wash- 
ington presided and Franklin served on ten of its 
committees. It is the same constitution, with a few 
subsequent amendments, under which we live. 

Without the courage and genius of the great 
Washington the Pievolution would have collapsed on 
the battlefield. Without the persuasive, masterly 
diplomacy of the great Franklin in obtaining money, 
fleets and troops. from France freedom's cause would 
have perished, in spite of the heroic efforts of the 
Father of His Country. The utmost talents of both 
were indispensable to the glorious victory achieved. 



12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

They were the complements of each other in estab- 
lishing the new, free Nation. 

The Franquelins of France claimed relationship 
with him when he was ambassador to that country. 
He exhibited several French traits of character, such 
as humor with gravity, in his writings; pleasantry 
with seriousness ; fancy with good sense. He took 
an optimistic rather than a pessimistic view of human 
future progress and happiness. But from his mater- 
nal side he inherited his grave, solid, steadfast Anglo- 
Saxon characteristics. He never became discouraged ; 
never surrendered to obstacles ; never got rattled ; 
but calmly fought on to victory. 

I have said Franklin was the patron saint of the 
printers — he was a "past master" of all branches of 
the business. He was an inventor, and added im- 
provements to every part of the printer's art. 

You are all familiar with the story of liis refusal 
to adopt his father's trade of a tallow-chandler, but 
■he selected the more effective and congenial art of 
dispelling darkness by diffusing light into the minds of 
mankind through the medium of types, ink and paper. 
He served as an apprentice under his brother James 
in Boston, on the AV?r England Courant, which he 
once edited while his brother served a month's sen- 
tence in jail for reflecting mildly on the local govern- 
ment's tardiness in fitting out a ship to go in pursuit 
of a pirate vessel which was preying on the commerce 
of Boston. The pig-headed council decided this Avas 
'* a high affront to the government," and ordered the 
sheriff to commit James Franklin to the Boston jail ! 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

From ChappeFs Painting. 



HIS APPRENTICESHIP. 15 

Benjamin ^\as then a lad uiuler seventeen years, but 
managed, in the few weeks he ran the Courant, to 
make it, as someone says, "the first sensation news- 
paper issued in New England," The Courant re- 
doubled its attacks on the council while his brother 
James lay in prison, assailing the tyrants in argu- 
ment, satire, verse and squib. Benny "roasted" the 
insolent, oppressive government for months after his 
brother James had emerged from jail. The boy was 
indignant and exasperated at its grossly tyrannical 
assault on the liberty of the press. He trebled the 
circulation of the Courant by attacking it, and he car- 
ried public sentiment with liim by storm. During his 
long life afterward he was an invincible defender of 
the liberty of the press. This episode in Franklin's 
early career conspicuously showed he possessed the 
stuff in him which makes a successful journalist. 

He remained in the Boston Courant office until 
there was nothing more of the printer's trade to be 
there learned, and, suffering personal abuse from his 
unappreciative brother, he tells us in his admirable 
autobiografy and in his humorous manner how he 
ran away — "skipped" — from his brother's office sev- 
eral years before his apprenticeship had expired, and 
"tramped" to the "City of Brotherly Love," stop- 
ping en route at New York long enough to learn it 
was then overstocked with printer journeymen — there 
being half a dozen or so, the place containing six 
thousand or seven thousand quaint inhaldtants, living 
on crooked, narrow streets, with the gables of the 
dwellings facing them. The language spoken was 



16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

mostly Dutch, and the street signs were also in 
Dutch. 

Arriving in Philadelphia with a few shillings in 
his pocket, weary, footsore and hungry, he bought 
some baker's rolls ; walked along the middle of the 
street, gazing into windows and munching his bread, 
while his future wife looked and laughed at the rustic 
young fellow as he passed by. He wet the dry bread 
with a cup of river water, and followed a stream of 
Quakers going to their meeting-house to w^orship in 
silence. There he fell asleep from fatigue, and a 
friendly Quaker awakened him and showed the boy 
Franklin to a cheap lodging-house. He looked about 
for work at his trade ; soon found employment ; lived 
frugally ; avoided intoxicants ; saved his wages ; read 
every useful book he could borrow ; but books other 
than dogmatic were few and far between, in those 
days, in Philadelphia. 

During this journeyman period of his life he 
made the personal acquaintance of the governor of 
the province. Sir William Keith, who professed to 
take a great fancy to the thoughtful, industrious, 
intelligent young fellow, and proposed to loan him 
sufficient capital to set him up in the printing busi- 
ness. He had Franklin make out a complete sched- 
ule of the things needed, and caused him tO sail to 
London to select the outfit, promising to forward 
drafts for payment. There he perfidiously left the 
eighteen-year-old l)()y to shift for himself. Keith was 
a frothy, popularity-hunting demagog, rarely per- 
forming his promises. He soon played out. 



HIS STAY IN LONDON. 17 

Franklin, hearing nothing from Gov. Keith, 
discovered that he had been victimized and was a 
friendless stranger in a great city. Bnt he was full 
of self-reliance and soon got employment at low 
wages. He remained in London nearly two years. 
He acquired skill in his trade and became a first-class 
printer. He read many useful books ; made several 
valuable acquaintances and some bad ones, and at 
last concluded to return to America. 

Suppose he had elected to remain in England, 
what a change it would have made in the future his- 
tory of his country ! For himself he would have 
become a leading publisher in London ; perhaps a 
member of Parliament and of the learned societies, 
for he was of the kind of men who can not be kept 
down, but are born to rise. But a wise Providence 
which "shapes our ends, rough hew them how we 
will," sent him back to his native land, where his 
genius was afterward devoted to creating a free and 
independent republic among the nations of the earth. 

Soon after his return from London to Philadel- 
phia he organized a numl)er of his fellow workingmen, 
selecting them carefully, into a secret society called 
the "Junto." Its purpose was the improvement of its 
members in virtue, knowledge and usefulness, and to 
exercise the united influence of the members on the 
city for its moral and material welfare. He remained 
a member of the celebrated Junto for forty years. It 
accomplished an immense amount of good in the city 
and was of great mutual benefit to its members in 
their business affairs. 



18 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin's ambition was to own and edit a news- 
paper. He soon founded the Pennsylvania Gazette , 
which was a success from the first issue, and in a few 
years became a leading journal in the Colonies and a 
very profitable investment to himself. He added a 
book and stationery store and established "Poor 
Eichard's Almanac," wdiich quickly became so popu- 
lar that his presses could hardly fill the orders for it. 
It was a serio-comic almanac, inculcating political 
economy in humorous language and captivating epi- 
grammatic maxims. Nothing gave him more reputa- 
tion in these early days than his almanac, which 
quickly circulated over all the Colonies and was re- 
printed in Great Britain and was copiously quoted in 
France and Germany. 

" Poor Pilchard " taught the necessity of frugality, 
industry and temperance, in a pleasing, captivating 
way. While he made all classes of readers smile or 
laugh at what seemed comical, he managed to plant 
moral maxims or valuable truths in their minds, which 
w^ould grow and make them richer, better and happier 
people. 

The echoes of Franklin's proverbial filosofy, 
taught in "Poor Pilchard," are still in our ears, one 
hundred and fifty years after they were first uttered. 
They were still fresh in my boyhood time. Ho"\v often 
my father, who was a farmer, used to say to me, 
"My son, remenil)er "what 'Poor Eichard' says," 
when he wanted me to go to bed early and get up 
before sunrise: "'Early to bed and early to rise 
makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.'" Some- 




BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. 

Ne a Boston, dans la uouvelle Angleterre, le 17 Janv. 1706. 

Honneur du nouveau monde et I'humanite, 

Ce sage amiable et vrais les guide et les eclaire; 

Comme un autre Mentor, il cache a I'oeil vulgar, 

Sous les traits d'un mortel, une divinite. 

Par M. Feutru. 

Diiplessis pin.rit Parisiis 177s. Chevillet sculj)sit. 

Tire du Cabinet de M. Le Ray Chaumont <fe Cie. 

[Reproduced from an old steel engraving,! 



HIS MARRIAGE. 21 

times I would reply that I had rather sleep longer in 
the morning, even if I lost some of the wisdom. 
Another maxim he was fond of quoting, showing the 
necessity of hard toil, was "An empty mealsack can 
not stand alone." Another, "A penny saved is worth 
more than a penny earned;" another, "Forewarned 
is forearmed, except to fools." He was fond of quot- 
ing one from Hudihras, which he credited to " Poor 
Eichard," and which is often ascribed to Solomon's 
Proverbs, that " Sparing the rod spoils the child," but 
which I declined to accept, though he often impressed 
it upon me in a very striking manner. 

Not long after his return from London Fraidvlin 
married Miss Deborah Piead, the girl who laughed at 
his singular appearance as he walked along the middle 
of Market street eating his roll of bread, carrying one 
under each arm and staring into the windows, on his 
first appearance in Philadelphia. They lived happily 
together as man and wife for more than forty years — 
working hard in the earlier period to get on in the 
world. She took care of the shop and accounts and 
housekeeping, while he toiled early and late — often 
burning the midnight oil at the case or press to get 
out a piece of work when promised. He was a great 
stickler for punctuality. He always tried to do a 
good job, and charged fair prices; he never over- 
charged anybody, never cheated anyone, in all his 
life. He carried a clean conscience with him under 
all circumstances. 

Franklin prospered in "basket and store." He 
became popular with people ; they patronized his 



22 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 

publications and bis store ; tbey beaped offices on 
bim, botb legislative and executive. They had him 
appointed postmaster-general, and quartermaster, 
and colonel during the French war. They consulted 
him upon every subject, and his advice prevailed ; 
everything came bis way. As postmaster-general be 
increased the number and speed of the trips ; cheap- 
ened the postage greatly ; evolved order out of confu- 
sion and made the department yield handsome profits 
where it had previously been conducted at a serious 
loss. He was successful in all things he undertook, 
because he applied reflection and methodical industry. 

If ever there was a self-taught man Franklin was 
that man. Without aid from any seat of learning he 
received honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard for 
his tilosotical eminence and discoveries in electricity. 
The British Koyal Society, which at first ignored his 
remarkable electrical achievements, afterward elected 
him a member without charging bim admission fees. 
Oxford and Edinburgh conferred upon him their aca- 
demical degrees. The French were first to appreciate 
his filosofical efforts, the Germans next and then the 
Italians and the English. 

Franklin could not be persuaded to extend his 
autobiografy beyond his fifty-first year. He only 
wrote out those portions of his life which he thought 
were unknown or had attracted little or no public 
attention. Hence, what he wrote is a mere fragment 
of his great life. But no autobiografy ever written 
in any language equals it in style and charm of com- 
position. 



A BUSY TWENTY YEARS. 2B 

This middle period, or active, pushing and husi- 
ness part, of Franklin's life comprised but twenty 
years. His education, obtained when a lad at a Bos- 
ton primary school, was very scanty — ^ embracing- but 
little more than the "three R's." But he was always 
absorbing knowledge thereafter. During these twenty 
years devoted to active l)usiness Franklin managed 
to spare time to acquire what was then more than 
equivalent to a good classical education, though he 
never put his foot in a college except as a visitor. 
He learned to read and to speak French, to read 
Spanish and Italian, and obtained a fair elementary 
knowledge of Latin. He went as far in mathematics 
as he thought would be of any value to him. He read 
ancient and modern history, and every filosofical 
and scientific work he could lay hands upon ; he 
made a study of political economy, and banking, and 
paper money, and wrote essays on them. He became 
the founder of the University of Pennsylvania and of 
the American Philosophical Society. 

At the end of those tw^enty busy and useful years 
he had acquired what he deemed an ample compe- 
tence, which yielded about $12,000 a year, and he 
resolved to retire from business and politics and 
devote the remainder of his life to filosofy and sci- 
ence. He had already made part of those electrical 
discoveries which filled Europe with his name and 
fame. This was in 1748, when Franklin was only 
forty-two years of age. He had already invented the 
Franklin hand-press and the Franklin stove, which 
latter comfortably heated houses and saved enormous 



24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

quantities of fuel. He discovered the cause of and a 
cure for smoky cliimiieys ; lie impressed on the people 
the sanitary value of ventilation of sleeping-rooms, and 
told them how to avoid colds and the diseases arising 
therefrom. He showed cities how to sewer, pave and 
clean their streets and furnish Avater through pipes, 
all in the most economical way. He was the iirst to 
suggest the idea of savings-banks, which have done so 
much to aid in the formation of frugal habits and to 
augment the nation's wealth. He invented a street- 
lamp with such ventilation as would prevent sooting 
up. He invented the lightning-rod, with sharp points, 
for the protection of property. He introduced a paid 
police and fire department into Philadelphia, which 
was copied by other cities. He founded the system of 
public circulating libraries, of Avhich there are now 
thousands in Anglo- American cities and towns. He 
discovered and explained why oil spreads on water 
and calms and smooths the waves. He discovered that 
storms run backward from the place of beginning, 
instead of forward, as was supposed, the same as 
water in a mill-race when the gate is opened. He 
was the first to make observations on the Gulf Stream, 
and his chart of it, published one hundred and twelve 
years ago, still forms the basis of the charts now in use. 
He devised a system of reformed orthografy which if 
adopted would have greatly shortened and simplified 
the spellings of the English language, and thereby 
promoted immensely the diffusion of education and 
knowledge among the masses ; but the inveteracy of 
habit defeated his beneficent purpose and millions 




From the Original-Painting, by Duplessis, in the Metro- 
politan Museum of Art, New York. 



HIS ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES. 27 

have lived and died poor spellers, to be laughed at, 
ridiculed and jeered by the comparative few who have 
ever mastered the absurdities, intricacies and anom- 
alies of our hotch-potch orthografy. His mind seemed 
capable of penetrating and unfolding every mystery. 
Franklin was first brought into contact with the 
mysterious substance called electricity in 174G. He 
immediately began making experiments into its prop- 
erties and nature, and soon discovered that it exists 
everywhere; that it moves from a positive -to a nega- 
tive pole, and has great affinity for iroi^ and copper. 
By experiments he discovered electrical attraction and 
repulsion. He came to the conclusion, through pro- 
found reasoning, that the electricity that was produced 
in the Leyden jar was of the same substance and 
nature as lightning from a thunder-storm, and pro- 
ceeded to prove it by his celebrated experiment with 
the kite. When the thunder-storm broke over Phila- 
delphia he went out on the open common and sent up 
his kite into the heavens, with a bright pointed rod 
attached to it and a hempen cord with, a metallic key 
at the other end ; and then calmly faced death. The 
kite rose high into the down-pouring rain, amidst the 
crashing thunder and forked lightning. There he 
courageously stood, with his son beside him, watching 
the string till he saw the hempen fibers move ; then 
he touched his knuckle to the key, knowing that he 
might be struck dead at the instant. The lightning 
sparks crackled and leaped to his fingers harmlessly. 
He charged his Leyden jars with the fiuid and proved 
to the world the truth of his theory that lightning was 



28 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the same as electricity. lu previous experiments with 
electricity he had received shocks which had stumied 
and almost killed him. With this personal knowledge 
of its power it required nerve to tamper with a flash 
of lightning which could rend a great tree or kill a 
thousand men at a single shock. 

Franklin's leisure for scientific investigations was 
cut short by the political necessities of his country, 
and he was transferred to diplomatic fields, first for 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia and Massachusetts 
to London, and next for the thirteen revolted prov- 
inces to Paris. Had he not been diverted from Ms 
electrical studies and experiments where might he not 
have pushed his discoveries ? He might have invented 
the telegral or the telefone. It is difficult to set limits 
to the analyzing power of such a brain as he pos- 
sessed with the start he had gained in the electrical 
field, as he was just reaching his greatest thinking 
powers of mind when he was put into the public serv- 
ice of his country. 

Jefferson is credited with writing the most capti- 
vating sentences of the Declaration of Independence ; 
but in Franklin's brain was born, twenty-two years 
previously, a conception of a union of all the colonies, 
though acknowledging allegiance to Great Britain at 
the outset. He says, in his autobiografy, that in 
June, 1754, when war with France was apprehended, 
a convention of commissioners from all the colonies 
was ordered to be held at- Albany to there meet the 
Six Nations and to confer Avith those friendly Indian 
tribes concerning the best means of defending their 



UNION OF THE COLONIES. 29 

country and the colonies against the French and the 
hostile Indians. He was one of the four commis- 
sioners sent from Pennsylvania. 

He goes on to relate that he "projected and drew 
a plan for the union of all the colonies under one gov- 
ernment so far as might be necessary for defense and 
important general purposes." He placed his project, 
he says, before several gentlemen of the greatest 
knowledge in public affairs, and, having fortified his 
opinion by their approbation of his scheme, he ven- 
tured to lay it before the congress. The new plan 
was discussed for a number of days. It was then 
voted unanimously a union of the colonies should be 
established. A committee of one member from each 
colony was appointed to consider several plans of 
union which had been introduced as substitutes for 
or amendments to Franklin's. After full considera- 
tion the Franklin plan was reported back and adopted 
by the congress. By his plan the General Govern- 
ment was to be administered by a President-General 
appointed by the Crown, and a grand legislative coun- 
cil, or Senate, which was to be chosen by the legisla- 
tures of the several colonial states. The scheme of 
union was remarkably similar to that by which the 
states were afterward united into a Nation. 

This bold idea, which was wrought out in detail 
by its author, was submitted by the convention to the 
legislatures of all the colonies and to the British 
Government for its sanction. Franklin says in En- 
gland it was judged to have too much democracy in 
it, while many members of the colonial assemblies 



30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

thought it contained too much prerogative. The Brit- 
ish Cabinet and Parhament saw this scheme would 
speedily create a republic, and hence "sat down on 
it." It was a remarkable advance toward an inde- 
pendent, self-governing nation, which was achieved 
after a long and bloody war twenty-nine years subse- 
quently. 

And it is a singular fact that the same Franklin 
twenty-two years later helped to draft and signed the 
Declaration of Independence. He aided in framing 
the government under which the w^ar was fought, and 
finally was elected a delegate from Pennsylvania to 
the convention of 1787, which framed the constitution 
and which was presided over by George Washington. 
That constitution, with some amendments, is the one 
under which we live to-day. Franklin was then 
eighty-one years old, and when the great work was 
completed his health was better than when he began 
this last of his great labors. The excitement and im- 
portance of the business kept him up. 

The project of a convention to frame a stronger 
government for this country originated in the fertile 
mind of Alexander Hamilton several years previously, 
and ripened slowly and was only adopted after much 
public discussion and six years' delay, during which 
time the aged T)r. Franklin ■^^as president of a Society 
for Political Inquiries, which met in a large room in 
his own house and listened to weekly papers and 
essays on the all-important question of a l)etter and 
stronger government and constitution, wdiich the 
grand old sage earnestly advocated. 



THE WAR BEGUN. 33 

Fiiiiilly the delegates were chosen and met in 
Phihidelphia. Washhigton at tirst decHned to attend, 
and was rehictant by reason of his private att'airs. 
There was great opposition in the country by the 
state- sovereignty men to making a national constitu- 
tion. If Washington and Franklin had refused to 
attend, the scheme would undoubtedly have proven 
abortive. The vast influence of those two greatest 
men of the period saved it, and an indissoluble Na- 
tion was created. One writer says the awful dignity 
of "Washington in the chair and the contagious good- 
temper of Franklin on the Hoor and the vast influence 
of both out of doors saved the constitution from rejec- 
tion by the jealous states in the ratification. 

I now approach the most important service that 
Franklin rendered to his country in his long and hon- 
orable career. 

The Declaration of Independence had been sent 
forth and the last political tie connecting England to 
the colonies was severed, and the seven years' war 
began. Washington had lost the battle of Brooklyn, 
and his broken militia had retreated out of New York, 
up the Hudson River, and finally across it into New 
Jersey, with great loss of men and munitions of war. 
The scarcity of small arms, and ammunition, and 
artillery, and money stared Congress in the face. 
Silas Deane, of Connecticut, had been sent to France 
to feel of that nation as to what aid it might render 
the cause of the patriots. Arthur Lee was chosen to 
assist him. The French Government flatly refused to 
espouse the -Eevolutionary cause or give any aid, pub- 



34 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

licly. It had no faith that the colonies possessed the 
unity, cohesion or resources to win their independ- 
ence of Great Britain. An enthusiastic Frenchman 
named M. de Beaumarchais, who had some influence 
at court, managed to induce the government to fur- 
nish him secretly with a milHon dollars, which he, 
under the guise of a trader or merchant, invested in 
military munitions and supplies and shipped from 
French ports to America. But spies of Great Britain 
in France soon found out what was being done and 
made an uproar about it, and this small source of 
assistance was peremptorily cut off by the French 
Government, who disavowed his acts. 

Previous negotiations of Benjamin Franklin and 
John Adams with Lord Howe, at New York, who 
offered pardon to the insurgents and certain trade 
concessions, had failed to effect a peace. Franklin 
insisted on Britain's acknowledgment of America's 
independence. No agreement could be made and the 
war continued ; but the American cause was becom- 
ing more gloomy every day. It was at this time that 
Thomas Paine wrote his "American Crisis," begin- 
ning with the famous words, "These are the times 
that try men's souls." Strong help from France, 
however, was indispensable. The commissioners sent 
there had made no headway in obtaining it. The 
Congress in despair turned to Dr. Franklin and per- 
suaded the old man, then turning into his seventy- 
first year, to undertake the all-important mission. If 
he failed in securing the help of France the cause of 
independence was lost beyond hope. 



THE MISSION TO FRANCE. 35 

Franklin reached Paris late in the fall of 177G 
and set himself at work to be agreeable to the king 
and his cabinet. He rapidly added to his knowledge 
of the French tongue. He joined the scientific and 
lilosofical societies. The fame of his discoveries in 
electricity had preceded him there, and helped his 
mission greatly with the learned classes and the court. 
The maxims of " Poor Pdchard " were household words 
in French families. Franklin was looked upon as a 
sage and filosofer like those of Greece and Rome. 

In his bland and benign manner he pressed his 
way into the confidence of the most influential men 
of France. He persuaded them that the contest 
in America was more than a rebellion ; that it had 
become a revolution ; that the revolted colonies were 
almost able to achieve their independence without any 
outside assistance, and that, with the aid of France, 
short w^ork would be made of England. He pressed 
on the king and his ministers that now was France's 
golden opportunity to "get even" with her old foe; 
to cripple her power and to win back territory lost in 
the last war with England. If not now taken advan- 
tage of such a chance would never return. If the 
seceding colonies were conquered or coaxed back to 
Britain they might help mightily in any future wars 
against France. But if France helped them now to 
achieve their independence they would ever be grate- 
ful and show it in their commerce and other ways 
which would be of great benefit to France. Now was 
the time to strike the blow that would cripple this 
hereditary enemy, " perfidious Albion," and revenge 



86 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

France for the loss of i^s Canadian possessions a few 
years before. 

Franklin poured these ideas and arguments into 
the ears of the king, his court, his generals and admi- 
rals, and the merchants, manufacturers and bankers. 
He worked hicessantly and persuasively, and gained 
ground continuously. The news of Washington's fine 
victory over the British at Trenton helped him greatly 
at the French court, and he made the most of it. His 
good humor, courteous manners, persuasive argu- 
ments won the day for the desperate, struggling Ameri- 
can cause. He induced France at first to privately 
lend considerable money to America, and to run in 
shiploads of muskets, ammunition, and artillery. 
And soon aftei'Avard he persuaded the king to declare 
war against Great Britain. After that money and 
munitions of war reached Congress in large quanti- 
ties and the tide began to turn against the British. 
These were followed by squadrons of warships, and 
finally by brigades of French soldiers. A strong 
French fleet bottled up the British army at Yorktown, 
and a division of French troops, joining with Wash- 
ington's army, made an assault on the British force. 
It surrendered to AVashington and the war was prac- 
tically over, and independence was won. Without the 
powerful aid given by the French independence could 
not have been achieved ; without the diplomatic gen- 
ius of Franklin the French would not have declared 
war on England to help the Americans. 

The next great work Franklin was employed by 
his country to perform was to negotiate a treaty of 



TREATY WITH ENGLAND. 37 

peace with sore, sulky, stubl)orn Britain, and lie 
acquitted himself with an ability and success that 
have been the admiration of statesmen and diplomats 
from that time to this. No other American could 
have accomplished as much as he did. He almost 
persuaded the British government to cede its Canadian 
possessions to the United States. If he had pressed 
the point just a little harder he would have succeeded. 
But he was not aware of how near he was to accom- 
plishing his darling object. 

He then returned home full of years and honors, 
standing head and shoulders higher than all other 
Americans, save Washington alone. As before stated, 
he finished and crowned his manifold works for his 
countrymen in helping to frame that wonderful con- 
stitution which Gladstone calls the greatest and most 
perfect piece of constructive statesmanship ever coined 
from the brain of man. 

The birthdays of but few men are annually cele- 
brated or commemorated after their contemporaries 
are dead. Whose in this country but Washington's 
and Franklin's? Even Hamilton and Jefferson, 
statesmen of the highest rank, seldom have their 
liirthdays celebrated, while Franklin's is perennially 
commemorated by his admiring countrymen. His 
fame dims not under the corroding tooth of time. His 
thoughts are the common property of all civilized 
lands. His maxims and sayings are still household 
words. His numerous utilitarian inventions were 
given to his country without patent or fee, the reason 
being he was so much indebted, he said, to preceding 



38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

generations for their inventions he couhl only repay 
by bestowing his own inventions without patents on 
his generation and on posterity. 

In conchision, I beheve I am warranted in declar- 
ing the printer craft of America has given to man- 
kind one of the greatest men who ever lived, the 
immortal Dr. Benjamin Franklin, He had a brain 
which penetrated, comprehended and investigated all 
subjects which could be made to yield benefit to liis 
countrymen and the human race. He spent his life 
in doing good, without a particle of selfishness in 
his motives. He was the greatest mental luminary 
of his age. All his uttered thoughts and public actions 
tended to instruct, enlighten and better the condition 
of his fellow man, especially the poor and the weak. 

When we pass from time to eternity we may see 
the revered Washington sitting on high Olympus 
among the immortal gods, and benign Franklin may 
be found walking in the academic groves conversing 
with the shades of the sages and scientists, the filos- 
ofers and filanthropists of all ages. 




SOME (iOODUOKDSAKOn THE PKOOFSHEET. 



It is a first-class assistant in every respect, and fills a long- 
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Besides the valuable reading-matter it contains, it commends 
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a joy to look at its pages. — Mrs. E. B. Burnz. New York. 

One of the most spicy little magazines that reaches this office 
is The Pboofsheet, a monthly publication, devoted to the inter- 
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Printer and American Craftsman. 

The Pboofsheet is a valued publication that reaches this 
office monthly. It is printed for proofreaders and its menu is 
always rich and varied. This interesting little journal is issued 
for $1 per year, and gives for this outlay a generous supply of 
instruction and entertainment. To proofreaders it is invalu- 
able. — Missouri Editor. 

The Phoofsheet is a little monthly, published by the Ben 
Franklin Company, of Chicago, devoted to all matters appertain- 
ing to the duties of the proofreader. The typewriter operator 
should be as well informed as to correct methods of spelling, 
punctuation, syllabifying, paragrafing, capitalizing as is the most 
critical proofreader or compositor, and he will find the same 
kind and as large of measure of benefit in the careful study of 
such a publication as The Ppoofsheet as will a member of the 
special class for which it is designed. — Phonographic Magazine, 



TAI/p TUf RFQX "^ "'^^ takes a litei-iirv jounial a jniirnul to 
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A Sciiii-Moiillily .liiiirii;il nf Literary Criticism, Disrussion and Infnniiatinn. 

"THE BEST" is also the ihi-apest — !t;2.0() a year, i?l.()0 for six months. 

Thk Dial was established in 1880. It is not local or sectional. Its writers 
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thirty American coUej^es ;md universities. Its circulation and influence are 
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ECONOMICAL 

ACCURATE, 

TIME-SAVING. 

THE BEN FRANKUN COMPANY is prepared to supply 
accurate and up-to-date PRINTED MAILING-LISTS of the 

Printers, Bookbiiulei'8, Litlio;^'raters, 
Eiibbor-Stainp and Paper-Box 3Iakers 

Of Chicago. These lists are carefully corrected from week 
to week, so that parties using them are sure to reach the 
entire trade in these lines and to waste no postage-stamps in 
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PRICES AND TERMS: Single Copy. $4: if taken every 
other month. $3: if taken monthly. $2.50. Transient orders 
must be accompanied by the cash. 

THE BEN FRANKLIN COMPANY. 

232 Irving Avenue. Chicago. 



The News pa per Maker 



FRANK H. LANCASTER, 

Editor and Publisher. 



A Newspaper for Newspaper- 



Editors, 

Publishers and 
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10,000 



a week. 



Its Pages Contain the Advertise- 
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is recognized as the leading 
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and advertising business. 



Subscription, TIVO DOLLARS a Year. 
Advertising rates and sample copies on application. 

The Newspaper Maker, 

Tribune Building, NEW YORK. 



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